Members' Articles

26th July 2017

Post Type: New Member Article

Over the years we’ve created a number of bespoke packaging solutions for florists and occasionally even milliners. We continue to be one of a very few companies in the UK who have the ability to create circular ‘Hat’ boxes. What we also do, however, which is perhaps slightly less known, is that we create packaging in the shape of headwear as promotional packaging for events or special occasions.

Round hat boxes

Top hats, such as the ones above created for The Ritz (London), are a firm favourite and give a great sense of panache and style for any promotional event. Normally these would be used for chocolates, but could be for any trinket or smaller product.

who specialize in fondants, truffles and high-end chocolate delights, and while in this instant the company themselves added the lovely touch of adding ribbons and decorations….

Presentation cardboard boxes

…GWD can also offer this finishing service as with the personalised ribbon used on the top hat boxes above. As the top lid is removed one is left with a very stylish example of presentation packaging at it’s finest, with the contents displayed at their very best.

Where can I get boxes made?

We have been making these mortarboard hats (below) for many years, mainly for a couple of hotels in Oxford to celebrate student graduation season (and to promote themselves too, naturally)…

Packaging for graduation gifts

The small size has always contained chocolates, but on another occasion we were commissioned to make a larger version to house a bottle of champagne, as below.

Special boxes for wine and chocolate

Boxes in the shape of hats can be a great way to draw attention to a product or reference a particular theme or subject, and as such we’re often asked to make them for a variety of different clientele. Ascot, for example is particularly well known for the glorious array of hats that are on show. We created the jockey cap box – a great equestrian institution – for Royal Ascot back in 2013, as a chocolate box, pictured below. This piece of packaging is ideal for hotels or other outlets in close proximity to racecourses – and indeed racecourses themselves – to use during the season.

Amazing packaging solutions

Noel Greenwood is the Managing Director of GWD Ltd, the designers and manufacturers of presentation and promotional packaging. You can reach him on (01279) 416093 or at the company’s website: www.gwd.ltd.uk

14th June 2017

Post Type: New Member Article

GWD Ltd were approached in March this year by Mercieca Ltd , a UK-based advertising Agency, who wished us to create presentation packaging for Mitre – who were re-launching their Mitre Delta football. In their words, ‘the legend has returned, re-designed, re-invented and rejuvenated’. The launch date was May 31st 2017 and the ball is to be used in all EFL (Sky Bet) Championship and SPL (Scottish Premier League) matches for the 2017/18 Season.

The packaging they required was to enable the footballs to be presented to important ‘name’ influencers in the football world – so it needed to be high-end and beautifully manufactured. Below is an original concept diagram, prior to any development work.

Packaging for sports companies

For such a prestigious product the packaging had to be of a very high standard, and fortunately our team of designers and cardboard engineers have worked on such high-end packaging for many years, including for companies who hold the Royal Warrant such as Cornelia James

Presentation packaging UK

In this instance the actual build wasn’t overtly complicated. That said creating the aperture in the platform (which held the football) wasn’t straightforward as it needed to be created (cut) after the platform had been covered and wrapped in the printed paper. The platform is set at an angle (see image below) so as to present the football in its best light. During the development stages, the client also considered having a hinged lid on the box, and we consequently produced a sample. In the end, however, the client decided to go for a box with a separate lid for the final product. The decision was influenced by their additional requirement for a display plinth for use at the actual launch, as the base section of the box doubled up perfectly for this purpose.

In the end we created 100 of these boxes for the client, who also ordered 50 additional bases or plinths for display purposes.

If you have a prestige product that would benefit from presentation packaging, please consider GWD Ltd. It is possible to work alongside our designers to come up with a unique box that is perfectly tailored to your business, or if you want us to do it all for you, we can provide you with a box that suits your needs and promotes your brand or product. We are not a whole-saler, we design and make the majority of our boxes here in the UK, meaning we have no minimum order requirement and total control over lead times.

16th May 2017

Post Type: New Member Article

We mentioned in the previous blog post how Indian Ocean had been let down by their packaging company and came to us in extremis. Bizarrely a similar thing happened a week or two later.

In this instance a printing company came to us with an urgent problem. They had been working with the footwear retailer Footlocker and had been let down by their chosen packaging manufacturer at the last minute. The box in question was to act as a ‘Seeding Box’ – a package created (usually in small numbers) to ‘sow the seed’ of interest for their product, in this case a new trainer.

Packaging for shoes

The client was particularly anxious that the quality of the product should be reflected by the quality of the packaging. The training shoe in question was created by Adidas, who are obviously, a huge brand and a market leader, so a very fine finish was required. Unfortunately for the client, there was also a tight deadline, especially as proofs needed to be created and approved.

Quality presentation packaging

Fortunately, GWD Limited is extremely experienced in overcoming such problems. In this instance the box was a base and lid with a shoulder, wrapped in such a way as to create a grey stripe at the top and bottom of the base. It was gloss laminated throughout and foil-blocked in two positions and using two separate colours, including the use of a matt white foil over a white gloss laminated finish. This produced a particularly attractive and subtle finish, as the foil was only visible when the light caught it.

Adidas and Footlocker packaging by GWD

There was some ‘burning of the midnight oil’ involved in getting the product ready for the strict deadline – indeed it was picked up outside our premises at 4pm on the Friday to be in Holland the next morning!

Incidentally, the model on the box (and on the internal leaflets) is Sofia Richie – who posted about the shoot and the product on her Instagram account.

19th April 2017

Post Type: New Member Article

Earlier this year we were invited to tender by Indian Ocean - designers and manufacturers of luxury outdoor furniture. Indian Ocean have outlets in Balham and Hampstead and retails through Harrods of Knightsbridge and with distributors worldwide. The company creates innovative products, finished to the highest specifications and focusing on every detail, and as such demands its Distributor Presentation Packs, to be of an equally high status.

Unfortunately GWD Ltd didn’t win the original tender, which was given (on a price basis alone) to a different packaging firm. However, a couple of months after the tender process was completed we were contacted again as the rival company didn’t have the technical expertise to complete the job. A hurried meeting was set up with the customer.

The required presentation pack was a rigid, three-compartment slipcase which incorporated an upright open angled file for brochures as well as two drawers (one above the other), for storing samples, as you can see in the image below:

As the samples are primarily sections of the soft and hardwoods used by Indian Ocean in their furniture, the entire creation needed to be extremely strong and durable. It also needed to be branded and customised to fit its contents. The Distributor Presentation Packs were to be sent to all of the customer’s distributors.

Fortunately, GWD are extremely experienced in the creation of this form of corporate packaging having undertaken many such projects in the past. We are very proud of the knowledge and expertise of our staff and the skills that they bring to cardboard engineering and remain one of a very few companies able to carry out such work.

This is an unusual and highly functional piece of presentation packaging, which we were able to create within the very tight time constraints and within budget. We are happy to take on more of these projects and welcome any enquiries.

22nd February 2017

Post Type: New Member Article

Search Engine Marketing

So your website has been built and properly optimised for the search engines, directories and local search tools; it is now ready to be promoted.

This doesn’t necessarily mean engaging a dedicated search engine optimisation and marketing team, though the results from such programs are normally very effective. It does mean making certain that the world is accepting your new web site as you expected and making sure that nothing that could impede its success remains undiscovered.

“We really don’t want to be scratching our heads in six months from the launch wondering why it’s not performing and regretting the investment.”

You want to be celebrating the website meeting the objectives you set for it.

Don’t for one minute think that building a great website with quality content will work on its own. Your website is part of a bigger marketing ecosystem and needs to be linked in accordingly; linking typically with Social Media programs, the wider marketing activities of the enterprise, the blog, the traditional marketing, your legacy backlinks etc.

It’s at this stage where so many websites of great potential fail as there is a need to watch how a website is accepted or not by the search engines and optimise accordingly.

The Search Engine Marketing (SEM) performed by Toucan Internet is a mix of promotion, monitoring and feedback. The feedback is provided to you with the sole objective of improving your website performance and is focussed on specific outbound and inbound improvements in line with your performance goals.

We provide feedback in the form of basic reports and a commentary that you can act upon as you feel appropriate. It does give you the professional test and monitoring essential to any business activity where performance is critical. Search Engine Optimisation and SEM are essential and inseparable partners, each one feeding the other in a loop of continuous improvement.

Promote, Monitor and Feedback

Our mission is to see our clients get greater results and we promote to the search engines (SE) and directories in a number of ways. Since Google is the prime referrer nationally and internationally for b2b and b2c, this search engine is the prime focus of activity as it will return the highest rewards once successful. Google performance and feedback is reviewed manually every session in some depth. You will be asked to include a Google verification code in your website so we can gain access to Google’s valuable activity and performance data held for your website in their webmaster section. We will also need you to add a Google tracking code so we can access the visitor data captured by them and therefore provide qualified feedback.

We promote to the prime SE’s manually and the rest using automatic submission software. We manually verify your listing on Google, Yahoo UK, Bing and DMOZ – The Open Directory Project.

We manually submit the site to local and individual referrers such as UFindUs and Hotfrog and subsequently check for a positive listing.

Once the promotion is complete, reports are compiled including one for all the automatic submissions and a more detailed one for the manual SE including a comprehensive analysis of Google’s take on your site.

We analyse these results in line with your goals and will feed back our recommendations. The recommendations should be considered for your SEO activities and will likely involve updates to the website so the site will play a stronger hand to the search engines, particularly Google.

The Typical RoutineFor most clients we perform this comprehensive SEM routine on a cyclical basis with most clients having such a review every three months

After the first registration session the next recommended session is at the six-week point and then three monthly thereafter. This programme can be tailored to specific needs.

After each session you will receive submission and analysis reports. After the second session the results will normally start to appear and we can see clear indicators as to how to improve the results, if need be.

Whilst there is no firm guarantee of a search engine position without paying for it by a Pay Per Click campaign (PPC), Toucan does gain good results for its clients who understand that we have to work together to get the results over a period of time. We will of course also help you establish PPC campaigns if required.

Our Promise

We agree the goals for the website in the form of key terms & phrases under which the site is to be found in line with your website optimisation

We manually promote to the key search engines and monitor accordingly

We manually monitor in-depth Google activity

We manually promote to emerging directories and local search type websites

We provide a report of manual monitoring and promotional activity

We provide an online report of automatic submissions with history

We provide you an online Ranking report for Key engines and with history and graphs for multiple key terms

We provide you a list of recommendations in summary for future SEO of the site

As Toucan needs to keep up to date with the ever changing requirements of SEO and SEM this programme is subject to change as new practices, search tools and requirements evolve.

If you have any special requirements or would like to discuss these programmes in more detail, please contact us at: